HONG KONG (Reuters) – Violent clashes erupted early today in a Hong Kong protest hotspot as unarmed pro-democracy activists once again confronted riot police despite the confirmation of talks between protest leaders and officials early this week.
Hong Kong’s 28,000 strong police force have been struggling to contain a youth-led movement that has shown little sign of waning after three weeks of standoffs in which hundreds of thousands of people have occupied city streets to demand full democracy in the former British colony.
In the densely populated Mong Kok district, police managed to earlier repel protesters from a major intersection but have faced a significant pushback.
In the early hours of today, demonstrators launched a fresh midnight assault, suddenly putting on helmets and goggles to ready themselves, before surging forward to grab a line of metal barricades hemming them into a section of road.
Amid screams and cursing, hundreds of officers began whacking the protesters who raised a wall of umbrellas. Pepper spray was used intermittently amid violent scuffles.
The police then surged forward with riot shields, forcing protesters back.
“Black Police! Black Police!” the crowds shouted amid the fray. One protester in a white T-shirt and goggles was beaten by a flurry of batons leaving him bleeding from a gash in the head. Several protesters were taken away. Fire trucks with water cannons were stationed further down the street but weren’t used.
A senior policeman on the scene, Paul Renouf, said 400 to 500 officers were deployed to force the crowds around 20 metres back from their original position near a key intersection.
Hong Kong’s Security Chief Lai Tung-kwok said some of the clashes in recent days had been initiated by activists affiliated to “radical organisations which have been active in conspiring, planning and charging violent acts”.
The fresh street battles come just hours after Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying offered talks to student leaders next Tuesday in an attempt to defuse the three-week long protests that have grabbed global headlines with scenes of clashes and tear gas rising between waterfront skyscrapers.
Leung’s chief secretary, Carrie Lam, announced yesterday that talks between student leaders and the city government would take place for two hours on Tuesday and be broadcast live.
The protests have been going on for three weeks and pose one of the biggest challenges for China since the crushing of pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing in 1989.
It is also the gravest governance crisis faced by Hong Kong’s government since the 1997 handover to China, with no clear resolution in sight.
“These illegal acts are undermining the rule of law, undermining (what) Hong Kong has been relying on to succeed,” said Police Commissioner Andy Tsang. He added his force had been “extremely tolerant” but had failed to prevent the demonstrations becoming more “radical or violent”.
